Reviews

The 1946 Oscars were a VERY competitive with great movies including: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and It's a Wonderful Live (1946). However, Tomorrow is Forever (1946) is so pitch perfect that, at the very least, Claudette Colbert should have been nominated for Best Actress and Orson Wells for Best Actor. Wells was so great that one waits for everything he does and says in his pregnant and thoughtful performance. Then, there is a wonderful performance by Natalie Woods when she was only 8 years old!!

The story begins in Baltimore where the employees of Hamilton Chemicals Works are celebrating the end of World War I. Elizabeth MacDonald (Claudette Colbert) is working there as a librarian for Lawrence Hamilton (George Brent) and his father.

However, when she goes home that night to prepare for her husband's homecoming, she receives a telegram informing her that he had been killed in the war. This leads to a FLASHBACK of an incident that occurred during her one-year marriage to John Andrew MacDonald (Orson Wells). In the flashback, John shows Elizabeth his new suit (an Army uniform) and tells her that he had received an appointment, at top pay for a 2nd Lt, due to his expertise. He also tells her that he would not be near any battles.

RETURNING TO THE PRESENT: When Elizabeth returns to work the next day, she faints and is carried to the Hamilton's home. There, she is cared for by Larry's Aunt Jessica (Lucile Watson). After Elizabeth has been seen by a doctor, Aunt Jessica informs Larry that Elizabeth is pregnant. The Hamiltons decide that Elizabeth is in no condition to go home to an empty house so soon after John's death. So, they invite her to stay at their family home. When a baby boy is born, Elizabeth names him John Andrew (after her late husband) and calls him "Drew" for short. During her stay with the Hamiltons, Larry becomes very fond of Elizabeth and asks her to marry him.

MEANWHILE, in a German hospital, a parallel story has been emerging: John MacDonald had been taken from a battlefield with no identification except a letter, found in his coat, from Elizabeth. John is badly disfigured, with most of his right foot missing and his face torn away. He wants to die. but his doctor persists in telling John to live, even with only one foot. He also reminds John that his face can be replaced by plastic surgery. When John asks why, the doctor tells him that he must live for mankind.

The story then abruptly moves forward 20 years (from 1919 to 1939). Elizabeth and Larry still live in Baltimore with their two sons: Drew (John's biological son) and his younger brother, Brian (Larry's biological son). Drew is in college but wants quite and join the RAF after hearing that the Nazis had invaded Poland. His mother is terrified by Drew's determination to join the RAF. (It would be like losing John twice.)

At about this time, John returns to Baltimore to work as a chemist at Hamilton Chemical Works. John (now Erik Kessler) comes from Austria with his little daughter, Margaret (Natalie Wood). Margaret is scared of the new country and knows only a little English. Her father, now known as Erik Kessler, cannot be recognized as John, due to his facial plastic surgery and the 20 years that have passed since he had left Baltimore. John first goes to his old Baltimore home only to find that on one has lived there for years.

When John (Kessler) and Margaret are invited to the Hamiltons for dinner, he knows Elizabeth, but she does not recognize him. (Remember, even though the movie doesn't show it—John's face is TOTALLY changed due to the needed plastic surgery of 20 years before.)

The rest of the movie basically presents a debate between Elizabeth and Drew about his desire to join the RAF and fight with the allies. John (Kessler) is, at first, welcomed into the Hamilton home, but his very presence, at times, seems an impediment to the debate between Elizabeth and Drew. When Drew talks to John (Kessler) about the war in Europe, John (Kessler) passively agrees him. However, one can tell that his heart is not totally into the agreement; he, like Elizabeth, has seen enough death from war.

Elizabeth vacillates between wondering if John (Kessler) is HER John and seeing him as the enemy. At one point she says, "You killed my husband." John's (Kessler's) response is measured.

When she insists that he IS John, he tells her that she should not want give up her full and happy life with Larry and her children and that wishing for different past is futile when hers has been so happy and fulfilling. Nor should she want John (Kessler) to be Drew's father when Larry has been such a good father to both boys.

When Drew tries to escape and meet his friends to join the RAF, John (Kessler) prevents him from leaving, telling him that he is not yet 21, and can't make that decision without his parent's consent. When John (Kessler) brings Drew home, Drew is very angry with his interference into things that don't involve him. However, John's (Kessler's) decision to interfere and bring Drew home is not to necessarily to change the outcome of Drew's decision; it is to make the decision right with Drew's family. (It is as though John was acting as Drew's father in this ONE very important moment in Drew's life.)

Orson Wells' performance in this movie is like discovering a hidden gem. What is so remarkable about it is how he is able to calmly navigate conversations while arriving at difficult personal questions. His answers are always true but never quite completely what Elizabeth (or the audience) might expect them to be.

One can see the possibilities for conflict in a story about an adolescent hermaphrodite (intersexual). Conflict is often a trait of a good drama: one that draws you to watch it in the first place. This coming-of-age movie is not disappointing in the sense that it DOES have conflicts, at several levels, not the least of which is the hormonal conflict going on within Alex's body.

The story takes place in a remote coastal village in Uruguay where 15- year-old Alex (Ines Efron), lives with her father, Kraken (Ricardo Darin), and mother, Suli (Valeria Bertuccelli). Her father works there as a marine zoologist who studies the migratory patterns of sea turtles.

Suli invites a family of old friends from Buenos Aires to stay with them for a while. The couple, Ramiro (German Palacios), and Erika (Carolina Pelleritti), have a teenage son, Alvaro (Martin Piroyansky), who comes with them. The two families had not seen each other for about ten years, but Suli is hopeful that Ramiro—a plastic surgeon---can help Alex make a decision about where she should go with her life now that she is in puberty. (It seems that Suli is fairly committed to more surgery for Alex, whereas Kraken wants Alex to make her own decision.)

From the time that the two families are thrown together there is a palpable tension in the air. The two men barely talk to each other and the two women converse only in a cursory way. This is evidenced when the two families meet at the dinner table. Here we learn that Ramiro does most of the speaking for his shy and awkward son, Alvaro; Alvaro is a vegetarian, very picky about what he eats. When wine is offered at the table, Ramiro encourages Alvaro to drink, even after Alvaro had turned the wine down. Kraken sees this as bullying and declares that that is one of the main reasons they came to this place: to get away from such bullying. At the dinner table, we also learn that Alex had recently been expelled from school for fighting with her best friend, Vando (Luciano Nóbile), and breaking his nose. When Suli suggests that they need to apologize to Vando and his parents, Kraken—always defensive and protective of Alex--snaps back that THEY should be apologizing to her.

Alex and Alvaro first met each other on the beach. Alvaro is just sitting there, drawing, when Alex plops down beside him and tells him she knows that he has just jacked off before coming to the beach. When asked how she knew, she says that she heard him and she knows. He tells HER to go jack off. She responds that she/he DOES--every day. This brings an incredulous look to Alvaro's face. Later in the same conversation, she tells him that she has never f—ked anyone and asks him if he would f —k her. He says no. When she asks why, he says that she is too young and that they don't know each other well enough. She retorts that that is a great reason for him to be her first f—k. On a later occasion on the beach, he calls her a freak. He doesn't know why (or at least how to express it)—it is just the way people always stare at her.

Alex then runs away from Alvaro and into the loft of a nearby garage to cry. Alvarvo follows Alex which leads to their first sexual encounter-- together (with Alex acting as the "pitcher" while having anal sex with Alvaro, as Alex's "catcher"). Kraken oversees this encounter and describes it to his wife. After witnessing the encounter--as well as knowing that Alex has recently stopped taking her masculine-preventing corticoids---Kraken is moved to seek out a man in a nearby city. He knows about the man from an old, highly-publicized newspaper story. (The old newspaper story had covered the transsexual journey of an intersexual child, raised as a girl, who had becomes a man.)

The movie later shows how Alex is bullied on the beach by a group of local boys who want to see her pubic area. Though the group is led by her former friend Vando, he is the one who intercedes to protect her from the group taking it too far. Interestingly, though Alex's parents know that she was almost raped, they fail to make any official complaint or take Alex to the clinic to be examined.

Though Kraken loves Alex unconditionally, he continues to insist that these decisions should be left up to Alex. (Here, we see how totally conflicted the parents are about how to handle their 15-year-old daughter/son. This is due to past problems that they have had with officials about what sex Alex is and whether to expose her--or themselves--to more public scrutiny.)

One can agree or disagree with the parents' decisions about Alex. For example, I think that she should have had the benefit of regular, non- judgmental, and long-term psychological counseling LONG before puberty. In other words, a trained, non-biased person could have picked up clues about what Alex thought (or believed) about her sexuality over a long period of time and long before puberty made the decision necessary.

All clues presented in the movie point towards the fact that Alex had no use for those bothersome "monthly visits" that come from her vagina, and Alex seems to totally enjoy her penis. However, sexuality may involve more than just enjoyment of the genitalia.

To me, the movie points more towards a masculine than a feminine temperament and behavior for Alex. However, the fact that one even CARES about the two parents' approaches to the problem argues in favor of the fact that this is a good movie. It draws you into the problem and elicits you to get involved and care.

Based on Giuseppe Pontiggia's novel and Gianni Amelio's screenplay, this film won several awards at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. As with most great films, this one deserves several viewings since new and subtle nuances are revealed each time that one sees it.

As the film opens, two men are meeting in a coffee shop and talking about a boy named Paolo. Gianni (Kim Rossi Stuart) asks Alberto (Pierfrancesco Favino) if Paolo looks like him now. Alberto tells him that, according to his wife, he only looks like his mother (her sister). Gianni says, 'Your wife must hate me.' Alberto then explains that, for her, he (Gianni) died with her sister.

As the two continue their conversation, Alberto tells how they learned that Paolo was failing to develop properly as he grew up. In spite of 'filling the house' with footballs, he crawled on the floor like a puppy, never learning to walk until after he was six. Gianni asks him why the decision was made to have him meet Paolo now.

Alberto explains that it was the doctor's idea: sometimes when physically-challenged people meet their fathers for the first time, a miracle happens. Gianni then asks Alberto if Paolo knows who he is, and he says 'of course.' 'You don't deserve him'...(there is a pregnant pause as if Alberto made the statement in a judgmental way)...

The two sleep together in the same train compartment, but when Gianni wakes up the next morning he finds Paolo's bed empty. Searching the train, he finds Paolo (Andrea Rossi) in the dinning car, playing with his game boy. After Gianni and Paolo eat breakfast together and getting to know each other a bit, they return to their compartment. As they return, Gianni sees Paolo's physical disability for the first time. Paolo has muscular dystrophy; he walks with a cane for balance; his upper torso is bent forward; his arms and hands are stiffly bent; and his gait is awkward as he moves from side to side rather than in a straight line. Gianni's first tendency is to assist Paolo back to their compartment. However, the teenager's natural tendency is to be independent and NOT to be helped. For example, even though Paolo can walk, he can't dress and undress himself because of his rigidly bent arms and hands; Gianni has to learn which shirtsleeve—left or right--to put on first and which to put on second; when undressing him, the left- right procedure is reversed.

The train trip takes the two from Milan to Berlin. In Berlin, Paolo is taken to a very good children's orthopedic center. Here, Paolo will undergo a battery of tests. Once in Berlin, Gianni must deal with Paolo's strange behavior which includes bothering strangers without compunction. When Paolo talks to the taxi driver and takes off his hat, the driver is understanding and patient. However, it still embarrasses Gianni. There is also a language barrier with the cab driver--and later, with the clinicians at the hospital--only being able to speak German and Gianni and Paolo only knowing Italian.

After the two check into the hotel, Paolo begins his battery of clinical tests. Gianni feels that he has to be with Paolo during the tests. But the 15-year-old first asks him to leave and then finally has to order him to leave while he spends the night in his hospital, hooked up to electrodes and wires for an EEG. The next day, Paolo goes into Nadine's room down the hall. Nadine (Alla Faerovich) is a severely retarded 20- year old woman. Her mother, Nicole (Charlotte Rampling), greets him warmly, as he curiously looks at Nadine. It is through this overture that Nicole gets to know Gianni; they are fellow parents of challenged youngsters. Nicole and Nadine are from Lyon France, but Nicole had once studied in Italy and knows fluent Italian.

The next day, Gianni looks on as Paolo is being clinically observed while walking back and fourth along a line, covered with sensing electrodes and a box-like device attached to his hip to monitor the kinetic movements of his hip joints, muscles, and ligaments.

As Paolo is ordered to march back and fourth, almost to exhaustion, Gianni can take no more of it and runs to him, stopping the test. When Giannia and Nichole later see each other, she tells him that he has caused a problem. She says that the doctor is very angry with him: 'The problem with some children isn't the disease. It's the parents.'

Gianni and Nicole later see each other at a hospital wheelchair basketball game, As Nicole is talking to Gianni, Paolo watches the game alone from the sideline and then disappears into the city. Nicole helps Gianni find Paolo and then assists him at the police station. Throughout the film, Gianni and Nicole share their real feelings about their roles as parents of challenged children. (Nicole's experience had lasted 20 years and Gianni's had lasted only three days.) As the two open up to each other, their roles gradually evolve from judge and accused.

In the last scene of the film with Nichole, we hear her truthfully telling Gianni that she is jealous of other parents when she hears that their children get better. She warns him not to get too close to Paolo and to be prepared to be hurt in the future...

The movie starts in the present (Spring of 1943) when, as a British Army officer, Charles Ryder (Mathew Goode), actually 'revisits Brideshead,' and reflects on different points in his past at Brideshead (a huge palatial estate in England). So, there are several flashbacks to various points in Charles's reflective story.

The story begins 20 years earlier when Charles leaves Paddington to study history at Oxford. Since he is from a middle-class background and feels as though he might be out of place at Oxford, he has his cousin show him how to fit in at Oxford. He soon takes up with a group of effete snobs, and through them, becomes good friends with Lord Sebastian Flyte (Ben Whishaw) (the Boy-Man, Sebastian personifies the adjective "effete fop" to a tee).

When Sebastian takes Charles to see his family's estate at Brideshead, Charles is awestruck with its beauty and vastness. After he leaves Brideshead and returns to his home in Paddington, he receives a telegram that Sebastian is seriously injured and needs his presence at Brideshead. When he arrives, he is picked up at the train station by Sebastian's sister, Julia (Haley Atwell). On the way back to the mansion, Julie tells him that Sebastian's injury, sustained while playing cricket, is a small crack in his foot bone.

Charles's return to Brideshead begins the a long hedonistic summer of bliss, sans parents, for Charles and Sebastian--drinking, lovemaking, and swimming. This bliss comes to an end when Sebastian's mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson) returns with Sebastian's older brother, Bridey (Ed Stoppard) and younger sister, Cordelia (Felicity Jones). At this point, Charles--a self-proclaimed atheist--learns how deeply this aristocratic family is influenced by the strict Catholicism, imposed on the family by Lady Marchamain: After her arrival, Sebastian and Julia cower in childlike obedience to their strong-willed mother. Unlike Sebastian and Julia, Bridey and Cordelia neither question nor fight their mother's strong religiosity. Thus, the need to scold them never seems to be necessary.

The Brideshead location of the story is temporality broken when Sebastian and Julia are invited to spend time in Venice with their father, Lord Marchmain (Michael Gambon), and his mistress, Cara (Greta Scacchi). Lady Marchmain, fearful of Sebastian's need for alcoholic escapism, asks Charles to accompany him to Venice to look after him.

Although Venice is not the paradise that Brideshead is for Charles, it is a demi-paradise: Charles is impressed by being in Venice and seeing its art and architecture, and feeling its ambiance.

The Venice break in the story supplies us with a contrast as to how Charles sees Sebastian and Julia in different places and under different parents. In one scene, as Lord Marchmain is seated on a large couch between his children with his arms around both of them, he says to Charles "You must think of us as a family of monsters." Later, Charles watches Julia and Sebastian as they play like children on the beach-- free of any guilt. As the 'children' play on the beach, Charles has a chance to talk privately to Cara. She basically tells him how Lady Marchmain had suffocated the children under Catholicism. He then says to her, "But surely YOU are Catholic too." She then explains, "Yes, but, here here, people are not so much bothered by guilt as they are in England: Here, people just live their lives and go to confession for absolution from their sins." She then goes on to warn Charles that, although his affair with Sebastian is just a phase, it is far more serious to Sebastian.

Although Venice is a place of freedom, it is also a place of mystery, full of twists, turns, dark corners, and cul-de-sacs. It is a place where one who is not used to dealing with freedom can easily become lost. In one scene, the family goes to a gay night street carnival. At this carnival of Venice, the music is loud, percussive, and rhythmic, and the people are costumed and masked. At one point, Julia gets lost in this pushing crowd and is diverted off into a wet tunnel—lost and confused. Charles follows her and kisses her while Sebastian looks on at a distance—realizing that Charles's love for him is no longer singular. (The idyllic relationship between Charles and Sebastian is broken and can never be the same again.)

When they return to Brideshead, Lady Marchmain notices that Sebastian is not the same and wonders what had happened to make this change. She also warns Charles not to be misled about Julia: her future is already fixed, and marriage outside of the Faith is out of the question.

Lady Marchmain has Sebastian followed at Oxford since his drinking is becoming worse. She also tries to have Charles watch him and cuts off his money to prevent him from drinking. When Charles gives Sebastian money to buy alcohol and he turns up drunk at Julia's Coming Out Gala—-an evening at which Lady Marchamain announces Julia's engagement to Rex Mattram (Jonathan Cake)—Sebastian embarrasses himself. Lady Marchmain then pulls Charles aside and tells him to leave Brideshead. At this point, Charles loses contact with Brideshead and Sebastian until sometime later when Lady Marchamain contacts Charles in Paddington and asks him to find Sebastian in Morocco and bring him back home. Charles tries to do this and fails.

Charles gets married, has children, and enjoys a successful painting career with his jungle paintings after traveling to South American for two years. All of this period is a bit murky in the movie until he meets Julia again on a passenger ship. Since both of their marriages are shams by this time, they both decide to divorce and marry each other. However, fate (or God) steps in to prevent this "sinful union" to take place....